Over two billion people around the world have some form of disabilities and 177 countries have signed the United Nations Convention on disability rights. In Nigeria, more than 20million people recently got a sigh of relief as the national disability act was signed by the President.
Prior, to knowing about these facts and figures, I had a friend in high school who was paralyzed and used crutches most of the times. He couldn’t do stuffs just like the rest of us, without being assisted, because there weren’t accessible trails and assistive gadgets. It was really discouraging. This experience has driven my passion to help differently able people find joy in their daily lives.
Hosting Accessibility Meetups has become part of my Local Guides commitment and a thematic cause in my country. While organizing monthly meetups across four states, I have been able to create a Map List for buildings with accessibility trails.
My passion for adding accessibility information on Google Maps has just started. Through my meetups, we look out for buildings with wide entrance, ramps, doors, elevators, escalators, dedicated parking, accessibility signs, directions, restrooms, tactile pavings, audio visual gadgets, wheelchairs, airport cardies, and Braille. I also add wheelchair signs and hashtags to highlight accessibility in my reviews. Lately, I am including event centres that provide sign language translators, as some religious and corporate organizations are gradually adopting this language.
In order to help create awareness around this cause, I organized the Worldwide Accessibility Meetup in December 2018. Some Local Guides across the globe joined to host meetups in their cities. As a follow-up, we started the One Accessibility initiative on Connect Forum. This was to further help Local Guides understand the nitty-gritty of accessibility and how to make impact in their own way.
Recently, I started hosting workshops and seminars to create awareness about Local Guides Programmes and more specifically advocate for more accessibility in our communities.
Personally, the One Accessibility team has been resourceful in sharing new information about inclusive technology, laws, and innovations. Getting to learn about tactile paving and change room measurements underlines the importance of the project. Now, writing reviews about accessibility features is no longer restricted to entrance, elevators, parking and restroom.
A few weeks ago, I met a lady who was impressed with some of our activities at One Accessibility. She asked permission to share our articles with her students and community. I realized that she was an ASL trained teacher. She sent me some videos and links which enabled me to start learning ASL. It’s not been easy but I can basically interact - signing hello, my name, alphabets and figures. I can’t wait to move faster and get talking to people with hearing impairment or even making a full video with ASL.
As at October 2018, Local Guides have added accessibility information to over 40 million places on the map. With the #OneAccessibility team and other millions of passionate Local Guides, I can’t wait to be part of the LGs to contribute One Billion Accessibility Information on Google Maps!
Let’s leave no one behind. Let’s guide better!
Thank you!
'Emeka
